Monday, February 28, 2011

Do you fully understand the rabid, illogical craziness of people protesting in the streets... in...Wisconsin... ? (thought I'd say middle east, didn't ya)

I've found some good answers at Real Clear Politics. On 27-Feb-11 Robert Tracinski figured out their motivation. Check out his article Public Unions & the Socialist Utopia. Mr. Tracincski says the voracious protests are because:

"It is a matter of survival for Democrats in an immediate, practical sense. As Michael Barone explains, the government employees' unions are a mechanism for siphoning taxpayer dollars into the campaigns of Democratic politicians.

But there is something deeper here than just favor-selling and vote-buying. There is something that almost amounts to a twisted idealism in the Democrats' crusade. They are fighting, not just to preserve their special privileges, but to preserve a social ideal. Or rather, they are fighting to maintain the illusion that their ideal system is benevolent and sustainable."

What does that mean?

"In short, public employment is an idealized socialist economy in miniature, including its political aspect: the grateful recipients of government largesse provide money and organizational support to re-elect the politicians who shower them with all of these benefits.

Put it all together, and you have the Democrats' version of utopia. In the larger American culture of Tea Parties, bond vigilantes, and rugged individualists, Democrats feel they are constantly on the defensive. But within the little subculture of unionized government employees, all is right with the world, and everything seems to work the way it is supposed to.

This cozy little world has been described as a system that grants special privileges to a few, which is particularly rankling in the current stagnant economy, when private sector workers acutely feel the difference. But I think this misses the point. The point is that this is how the left thinks everyone should live and work. It is their version of a model society.

Every political movement needs models. It needs a real-world example to demonstrate how its ideal works and that it works.

And there's the rub. The left is running low on utopias.

The failure of Communism-and the spectacular success of capitalism, particularly in bringing wealth to what used to be called the "Third World"-deprived the left of one utopia. So they fell back on the European welfare state, smugly assuring Americans that we would be so much better off if we were more like our cousins across the Atlantic. But the Great Recession has triggered a sovereign debt crisis across Europe. It turned out that the continent's welfare states were borrowing money to paper over the fact that they have committed themselves to benefits more generous than they can ever hope to pay for."

"Enormous contributions, yes -- to the Democratic Party and the Obama campaign. Unions, most of whose members are public employees, gave Democrats some $400 million in the 2008 election cycle. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the biggest public employee union, gave Democrats $90 million in the 2010 cycle.

Follow the money, Washington reporters like to say. The money in this case comes from taxpayers, present and future, who are the source of every penny of dues paid to public employee unions, who in turn spend much of that money on politics, almost all of it for Democrats. In effect, public employee unions are a mechanism by which every taxpayer is forced to fund the Democratic Party."

Sunday, February 27, 2011

OK, I wanted to have a Sarah Palin post up every day this month but I didn't quite make it as I got distracted by other stuff going on (like NZ earth quakes). Just an excuse, I know, but I started to feel a bit helpless this week.

But when I think of the possibility Sarah Palin could be the next POTUS? A very tingly hope grows large in my thoughts.

Just today a new study came out about drilling in Palin's home state of Alaska:

"February 25, 2011 (CNSNews.com) – A new study says drilling on Alaska’s Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) could make Alaska the eighth largest oil resource province in the world -- ahead of Nigeria, Libya, Russia and Norway.

The report -- by the consulting firm Northern Economics and the University of Alaska-Anchorage’s Institute of Social and Economic Research -- says that developing Alaska’s OCS could produce almost 10 billion barrels of oil and 15 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, create around 55,000 new jobs and produce $145 billion in new payroll nationally, generating a total of $193 billion in government revenue through the year 2057."

So who could make this a reality for America? Would this opportunity for resource development ever have a chance in hell to come to fruition under the current feckless, statist regime running Washington?

Hardy har har har! I laugh!

But what if the USA was run by a President Palin? I betcha she would seriously consider making this study into a reality if it was good for America.

Absolutely NOTHING the current regime is doing is "good" for America. Socialism never has worked and never will work.

America needs to be restored and a Palin Presidency just might be the - oh, so perfect solution in so many respects.

I will conclude my February 2011 Palin posts by listing just a few more traits, besides being a pro-exploring America resources person. She has many positive traits which would make her an excellent POTUS:

1) truly understands bipartisanship2) has governing experience of all male state3) has 60-80% of Americans support4) is pro individualism5) is pro USA founders and religious faith6) very family oriented7) gets things done8) is honest9) is trustworthy

Other strong Palin-for-POTUS traits listed this month are below. She is a:

How does YOUR favorite candidate for 2012 stack up? Who else has a stronger list of character traits and conservative values than Sarah Palin? I would be curious to hear a logical argument for someone else and your list of 28 or more... Go for it...

In the meantime, enjoy a radio show clip posted this week around the blogosphere which sums up how the more the left attacks her, the more it will make the center/right stand up and proudly support her candidacy if she chooses to run... (let's hope she does):

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Christchurch (B) is over 1000 kilometers away from Auckland (A). You can Google map it. For those who think in miles, that is over 620 miles.

Auckland doesn't feel any of the earthquake rumblings which happen down there. If we did, the whole NZ continent would be in big trouble.There has been recent volcanic activity at Mt. Ruapeho as recently as 1995. Mt. Ruapeho is about 420 km (260 miles) away and is: "one of the more active volcanoes within the Taupo Volcanic Zone (others include Mount Tongariro and Mount Ngauruhoe). It has been erupting regularly since 1969, with the latest events in 1995 and 1996. Ruapehu’s eruptions pose a risk to life and disruption to major power, economic and transport services." There is an active marine volcano in NZ: White Island. You can book at tour to check it out.

"Modern New Zealand is world renown for being geological active with high mountains, frequent earthquakes, geothermally active areas and volcanoes. This is due to New Zealand's modern position on the boundary of the Australian and the Pacific Plates. The collision of these plates caused the Pacific plate to subduct underneath the Australian plate which carries the North Island. To the south of the South Island, the situation is reversed. The subduction zones in New Zealand are defined by trenches in the north and in the south and by the Alpine Fault which connects the two. This plate boundary has shaped the size of New Zealand and also defines its geology.

The islands forming New Zealand developed as part of a broader continental shield made up of Antarctica and Australia, forming part of Gondwana. Radiometric dating places the oldest rocks in New Zealand being at least 500 million years old.

New Zealand's geological history can be divided into three main periods of sedimentation and three periods of mountain building (orogeny)..."

The tectonic rumblings which impact the Christchurch & Wellington are will, unfortunately, NEVER stop - it is just a fun part of life on this little corner of the planet.

Just a though: perhaps more people should move up to the Auckland region... about 1/3 of New Zealand lives up here. It is relatively tectonic activity free... for now!

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Oh... Chicago... I weep for your continued slow demise... thank god I grew up in Wilmette...

Exactly how TheWon and Queen Antoinette Meechelle are solving all of America's problems by spending the nation into growing debt and dark oblivion, I venture an educated guess Mr. Rahm, the new selected Mayor of Chicago, will be super dooper GREAT for the city and solve ALL of their nagging wee problems - in probably the same manner... Never let a crisis go to waste!

"Just a reminder: What Rahm has to look forward to:- A $654.7 million city budget hole.- Massively underfunded city pensions.- Public school disaster.- Public housing disaster.- 10.8 percent unemployment.- Public corruption And more corruption. And more corruption.- Consistent ranking as one of the nation’s most miserable and stressful cities.Good luck, man."

(is she being slightly sarcastic in her well wishes to Rahm, what do you reckon?...)

"Chicago is a one party dictatorship as there were no serious Republican challengers. There never are. The Chicago Machine's minions make sure of that. Tactics ranging from physical intimidation to legal skullduggery keep the city safely in the hands of the crooks who milk the taxpayer until they scream for mercy - and then milk them some more.

Emanuel was not very specific in his program for the city. He didn't have to be. He got the blessing of Godfather Daley (behind the scenes) and his Patrone Barack Obama. As usual, the reformers were disorganized, listless, and fought among themselves regarding which candidate to back. Not that it would have mattered. Loyal alderman were standing by to make sure that the "right" election outcome ensued.

A recent Wall Street Journal article highlighted the Census Bureau's finding that the population of the city of Chicago has sunk to levels not seen since 1920. Sky high taxes, crime ridden wards, and an unfriendly business climate have all combined to drive jobs away from the city, along with people. If this keeps up for another decade, the Windy City will begin to resemble the Motor City.

Governor Walker spoke to RightNetwork and explained "what will happen if his proposals are not passed: It means 5,500 state workers would be laid off. It means anywhere from 5,000- 6,000 local employees would have to be laid off. That’s anywhere from 10,000 to 12,000 people in a time when we have a 7.5% unemployment rate. We can’t afford to have anyone laid off. I’m trying to save jobs..."

These public sector union thugs, marxist-manifesto following, globalist liars and elitists are really mucking up America. They have been for a few decades. Hell, even good ol' leftist hero and liberal policy implementing President FDR said:

"Particularly, I want to emphasize my conviction that militant tactics have no place in the functions of any organization of government employees.

Upon employees in the Federal service rests the obligation to serve the whole people, whose interests and welfare require orderliness and continuity in the conduct of Government activities. This obligation is paramount. Since their own services have to do with the functioning of the Government, a strike of pubic employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to prevent or obstruct the operations of Government until their demands are satisfied. Such action, looking toward the paralysis of Government by those who have sworn to support it, is unthinkable and intolerable." Thank God Sarah Palin isn't in the elitist gang. She is one of the regular people; a hard-working American who made - and continues to make her own success.

She will make a great POTUS because she is not an elitist. Images above from Draw for Truth.

Was it the fact you are cheerily allowed to beat your wife if she refuses sex?Perhaps it is a plus that if someone steals from you, if living in a Muslim county under Sharia, you could promote chopping their hand off?Or, um, another lovely incentive: stoning an infidel to death?Oh, I've got it! ... at some point, if you want to become a suicide bomber: 72 virgins will be waiting for you in 'heaven'!Yes! These points must be very attractive features for new joiners into a "religion"!No?... Islam wants a world wide caliphate - to make EVERYONE follow Islam... by force as necessary... well, gee that just sounds swell, doesn't it?

"From Stop Shariah Now, examples of Shariah Law include the following: (from the authoritative source Reliance of the Traveller, The Sacred Manual of Islamic Law)

1. Requirement of women to obtain permission from husbands for daily freedoms;2. Beating of disobedient woman and girls;3. Execution of homosexuals;4. Engagement of polygamy and forced child marriages;5. Requirement of the testimony of four male witnesses to prove rape;6. Stoning of adulteresses;7. Lashing of adulterers;8. Amputation of body for criminal offenses;9. Female genital mutilation;10. Capital punishment for those who slander or insult Islam;11. Execution of apostates, or those that leave the religion of Islam12. Inferior status for all non-Muslims, known as Dhimmitude.13. Concept of Taquiyya: A Muslim may lie or deceive others to advance the cause of Islam.

You really need some better people around you. My mom stepped in when I was a teenager and hanging around with the wrong people. She was right. Perhaps disassociating with this promoter guy would be a start...

If you understood what Islam is and the world wide suffering it causes, this wouldn't be your "choice". You can be spiritual or believe in God without following Islam or any "religion" for that matter.

And of course you don't want to fulfill the "dumb jock" stereotype, do you?

Friday, February 18, 2011

Can I just say that Todd Palin is quite handsome? OK, just wanted to point out the obvious. The Palins make such a cute couple. They support each other and are very pro small business. From Conservatives 4 Palin:

"At a time when so many Americans simply want to get back to work, Sarah and Todd Palin’s working-class background might prove a welcome contrast to the Ivy-League-attorney-power couples and bluebloods who have graced the White House in recent years. Uniquely attuned to the concerns of the hardworking little guy, the Palins don’t just pay lip service to working families: they are a working family. Indeed, Todd Palin, the former “First Dude” of Alaska, is proudly blue collar – a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and United Steelworkers unions. Perhaps unlike any first spouse before him, Todd’s life work requires him to get his hands dirty, really dirty, both as a commercial fisherman in summers on Bristol Bay and also as a former oil-field production operator on Alaska’s remote North Slope.

Palin describes her husband in Going Rogue:

Todd Palin roared into my life in a 1972 Ford Mustang. Handsome and independent, he was part Yupik Eskimo. … He didn’t come from a wealthy family but from a very hardworking family. […] As a blue-collar union hand, a production operator wearing a hard hat and steel-toed boots, Todd wasn’t calling the shots for the [BP] corporate bosses in London. In fact, I told Alaskans, “Todd’s not in management. He actually works.”

Given our need to restore manufacturing jobs in this country, Todd Palin’s experience in an important industry and in North America’s largest industrial union (700,000-plus members) could prove valuable in an advisory capacity. As first gentleman of Alaska, Todd Palin counseled Governor Palin on workforce development issues for the natural gas pipeline she championed. Sarah Palin herself was given honorary membership in the IBEW union as she pursued private-sector energy projects. The overhyped emails released in February of this year, showed Todd Palin providing input to his wife on what you might expect: marine regulation, wildfires, native Alaskan issues, oil shale leasing, and Bureau of Land Management deals. While reporters suggested Todd played an alarmingly large policy role, strangely, no emails ever surfaced showing that he advised the governor on how to ban bake sales at public schools. Apparently, Todd Palin stuck to issues he knew, where he could be of value, and didn’t try to impose half-baked views on others. " (read the rest here)

Sarah Palin would make an excellent POTUS because she has lived, worked in and fully understands the 60-70% of Americans who work and run SMALL BUSINESSES... I'm going to finish reading "Going Rogue" now... it is a GREAT read.

A local radio station (the one that employs Vicki McKenna) just reported that the average compensation package for a Madison teacher is $79,000 per year. The average Milwaukee teacher compensation package is $101,000 per year.

Both of those are considerably more than what I make. In fact, last year my wife noticed that I made the same amount of money I made ten years ago. Of course, I am non-union, and my pay is merit and economy based. If the economy isn’t performing well, or if I do not perform well, I don’t get paid more, no matter how long I have worked. My employer does not provide me with a pension. My employer does not pay for all of my health insurance.

It used to be that people had to choose between higher pay and job security. If you chose public service, you had job security but you sacrificed higher pay.If you chose private industry, you likely got higher pay, but did not have job security.

These protesters need to realize they can’t have it both ways."

Sorry "protestors" who are being paid VERY HIGH WAGES with American TAXPAYER MONEY, nope... America is NOT WITH YOU...

Newly elected Governor Scott Walker (R) needs to hold firm and fire teachers who are absent: America is with YOU sir.

"Today the White House finally produced its proposal for the 2012 budget. Beware of the left’s attempt to sell this as “getting tough on the deficit,” because as an analysis from Americans for Tax Reform shows, the White House’s plans are more about raising taxes and growing more government than reducing budget shortfalls.

The fine print reveals a White House proposal to increase taxes by at least $1.5 trillion over the next decade. If you want to know how minuscule their proposed $775 million-a-year budget “cuts” really are, please look at this chart. The proposed cuts are so insignificant – less than 1/10 of 1% of this year’s $1.65 trillion budget deficit – that they are essentially invisible on the pie chart. That speaks volumes about today’s budget.

- Sarah Palin

UPDATE: As J.D. Foster of the Heritage Foundation points out: “...the President proposes a budget that keeps the federal government on a thoroughly irresponsible and unsustainable course.” Please read the Heritage Foundation article and understand the $775 million in proposed cuts noted above are what the White House’s budget director Jacob Lew identified as reflecting what they perceive as some “tough calls.” Yet, as noted, they are a drop in the bucket; and the White House’s total proposed cuts for this year are still not at all enough to make us solvent."

"Palin’s electability can be reckoned as an inverse function of the virulent campaign intent on her delegitimation. … The greater the fury … she is met with, the greater the likelihood that she poses a genuine threat. One does not raise a mallet to crush an ant."

(no, not the British queen...)On the 8th Feb, I posted pix from the garden including a visiting Monarch butterfly (above). Well it must have been a girl (laying an egg below)... her efforts worked... because tonight we spotted a baby Monarch caterpillar happily munching away:My nature friendly husband brought home these 2 little plants a few weeks ago - specifically for Monarchs so it appears to have worked. I've been told bees or wasps (birds too?) might eat these types of caterpillars, but I'll keep an eye out for the next stage (pupa). At least I have a photo. Weird how caterpillars turn into butterflies or moths... fascinating stuff.

If my husband or I see a weird bug, insect, spider, bird or mammal in our yard, we always react the same. "Hey honey, get the camera!" and the other person understands something interesting in nature is needing to be documented for our amusement.

The little caterpillar? No, not important - just a wee science experiment in the backyard. I love all things science so guess I'm easily amused. (& a nice break from worrying about American politics)

Before I spotted the interesting looking yellow and black little dude, I was collecting garden Basil leaves to make pesto. I snipped off some flowers on my Basil plants - WOW soooo pungent! (of course I made hubby smell a sprig...) What a strong and lovely smell. Perhaps that is why someone way back when (?) decided to try eating it. I have found this online about Basil:

"Native varieties of basil are found throughout Asia, Africa, and Central and South America. It was possibly first cultivated in India, where it has been considered a sacred herb associated with love and faithfulness.Basil plants are sometimes grown in the homes of Hindus to bring the family happiness. A basil leaf buried with a person was considered his passport to heaven.The word "basil" is derived from the Greek word for "king," a reference to its royal fragrance. Alexander the Great may have brought basil to Greece, where it was once thought scorpions would breed under pots of the growing herb.

Ancient Romans called the herb "basiliscus", a reference to the basilisk, a very fierce and dangerous dragon that could kill a person by looking at him. Eating basil was thought to be a protection from this dragon, as well as a cure for poison. The Romans also connected basil to love and fertility.

The French call it "herbe royale." Medieval Europeans thought it to be a sorcerer's herb.Basil has an association with the Holy Cross. A Christian legend has it that the True Cross was found under growing basil. According to Father Mark on the blog Vultus Christi (see Resources below), "Basil plants were reputed to have sprung up at the foot of the Cross where fell the Precious Blood of Christ and the tears of the Mother of Sorrows. A sprig of basil was said to have been found growing from the wood of the True Cross."

But to show that basil doesn't play favorites, it is also associated with Erzulie, a voodoo love goddess worshipped in Haiti.

Italians think of basil as a symbol of love. In Romania, if a man accepts a sprig of basil from a woman, they are engaged."

The outdoors and all things nature are just wonderful... Sure keeps me entertained... (p.s. the pesto with pasta, tomatoes and a green, home grown capsicum (pepper) was yum!)

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

"Upon watching and listening to Governor Palin’s speech, one can see that she had a broad message supported by specifics. The broad message? Exceptionally big government leads us on the path to ruin, but American exceptionalism lifts us from the rubble of the ruin and allows us to rebuild. The specifics that Governor Palin shared outline the ruin that big government creates, the reforms and policy changes needed to clean up the rubble, and the American exceptionalism that needs to be embraced to allow us to rebuild."

Sarah Palin would make an excellent POTUS because she fully believes in American exceptionalism.

From Gateway Pundit "...Obama and Pelosi blew more money on their failed stimulus than George Bush did in ridding the world of Saddam Hussein and bringing democracy to Iraq. It wasn’t the Iraq War that broke the bank. The CBO reported that the total cost of the eight-year war was less than the stimulus bill passed by the Democratic-led Congress in 2009 – via FOX News."

"The Democrats promise that a government health care system will reduce the cost of health care, but as the economist Thomas Sowell has pointed out, government health care will not reduce the cost; it will simply refuse to pay the cost. And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil."

"Palin put that term in quotation marks to signify the concept of medical decisions based on the perceived societal worth of an individual, not literally a "death panel." And in so doing, Palin was true to Dr. Emanuel's concept of a system which

considers prognosis, since its aim is to achieve complete lives. A young person with a poor prognosis has had a few life-years but lacks the potential to live a complete life. Considering prognosis forestalls the concern the disproportionately large amounts of resources will be directed to young people with poor prognoses. When the worst-off can benefit only slightly while better-off people could benefit greatly, allocating to the better-off is often justifiable....When implemented, the complete lives system produces a priority curve on which individuals aged between roughly 15 and 40 years get the most chance, whereas the youngest and oldest people get chances that are attenuated.

Put together the concepts of prognosis and age, and Dr. Emanuel's proposal reasonably could be construed as advocating the withholding of some level of medical treatment (probably not basic care, but likely expensive advanced care) to a baby born with Down Syndrome. You may not like this implication, but it is Dr. Emanuel's implication not Palin's."

"...she used a colorful expression “death panel,” but it’s a good and fair polemical expression if in fact life-saving care will be rationed on this basis. I have found myself saying, in conversation, “I’m afraid Obama is going to kill me.” Now, I’m not picturing him or one of his minions coming over to murder me, but I am afraid that as I get older and need expensive care to keep me alive that I will be told I cannot have it, because at my age, in the government’s opinion, there’s not enough life left in me to be worth the money that I would take from the system that needs to pay for everything."

About the W.House bumblings:"The consensus among the assembled experts on the Middle East? A colossal failure of American foreign policy.

This failure was not the result of bad luck. It was the predictable consequence of the Obama administration’s lack of any kind of coherent grand strategy, a deficit about which more than a few veterans of U.S. foreign policy making have long worried."

What happens when there is no foreign policy?

"The contrast between the foreign policy of the Nixon-Ford years and that of President Jimmy Carter is a stark reminder of how easily foreign policy can founder when there is a failure of strategic thinking. The Iranian Revolution of 1979, which took the Carter administration wholly by surprise, was a catastrophe far greater than the loss of South Vietnam.

Remind you of anything?“This is what happens when you get caught by surprise,” an anonymous American official told The New York Times last week. “We’ve had endless strategy sessions for the past two years on Mideast peace, on containing Iran. And how many of them factored in the possibility that Egypt moves from stability to turmoil? None.” "

And about TheWon's Cairo speech in 2009:

"America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles—principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.

Those lines will come back to haunt Obama if, as cannot be ruled out, the ultimate beneficiary of his bungling in Egypt is the Muslim Brotherhood, which remains by far the best organized opposition force in the country—andwholly committed to the restoration of the caliphate and the strict application of Sharia. Would such an outcome advance “tolerance and the dignity of all human beings” in Egypt? Somehow, I don’t think so."

Go Ferguson Go! You may never get invited back onto MSNBC propaganda network, but many of us appreciate your truth telling.